Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[MamaRoo]

no signs yet, but the feed store down the road just got in 3 day old marans chicks so I might slip one under her tonight.

 

[bobbieschicks]

no signs yet, but the feed store down the road just got in 3 day old marans chicks so I might slip one under her tonight.

Ahhh maran chicks! Wish we had some near here.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Mine has been contemplating it too and I had to put a stop to it. She has a baby I gave her and he is about 5 weeks old now. He spends alot of time on his own now and just goes with momma to sleep. All my silkies are kept up in a pen together except for this girl because she was used to free ranging with the big girls. Anyways she alwas slept under my car and I noticed a few days ago she hadn't been sleeping under there. Wednesday morning my FIL comes in the house and gives me an egg. He said my puppy brought it to him. It was a silkie egg and she is the only silkie in the yard. Then Thursday I got up and Ruby comes running up with something in her mouth. I holler at her and she drops another Silkie egg! So I went to her last broody spot and sure enough she was in her dog carrier so I think she was trying to go broody again. My cousin has some young RIR Pullets the same age as her adopted baby who is some kind of orange chicken, maybe a production red, so he wanted her baby so I took him to his new home and put the broody silkie in with the rest of the white silkies. Hopefully she will breed and lay some fertile eggs she can brood. I don't have a rooster in the yard at all so whatever she tried to brood in her dog carrier wouldn't have been fertile anyways. She thinks she's in jail and growls at me when I come see her.

 

[bobbieschicks]

What is going on! Tonight Smokey is on the roost, but my silkie pullet Topsy is sitting in the nest box to sleep. She usually sleeps on the roost. If she's trying to go broody I'll let her. But she's so tiny I could only fit 6 eggs under her at best. Time will tell if she's just trying to hide or broody.

BTW, do silkie broodies pull out their breast feathers?

 

[Haloclimb]

Our Silkie egg hatched last night! Only one, since we got it from a friend (they don't really eat their eggs so their hens are hatching chicks all the time!)
This'll be the first pure bred silkie we've had, so hopefully it turns out to be a hen!


We had to chick out the last batch of chicks from the hutch they're in now, and they are not happy about it xD They aren't fond of going into the big coop yet!

 

[bobbieschicks]

Our Silkie egg hatched last night! Only one, since we got it from a friend (they don't really eat their eggs so their hens are hatching chicks all the time!)
This'll be the first pure bred silkie we've had, so hopefully it turns out to be a hen!


We had to chick out the last batch of chicks from the hutch they're in now, and they are not happy about it xD They aren't fond of going into the big coop yet!

Awwhhh so cute!

 

[Zootopia]

I'm going to run out of ceramic eggs

I usually stick 2 of them under the girls while they decide what they want to do. The black cochin is still growling but in a different nest box, one with real eggs, I gave her the fake ones back and took the real ones. Then I found another black cochin in a corner of the hay barn on 2 eggs and she's being MEAN. I was in there yesterday morning so she's fresh at it, wasn't there early yesterday.
I'd order eggs in for them if I wasn't afraid the PO would wreck the air cells. The Cuckoo Maran was sitting on 4 shipped eggs that didn't fit in the bator (everyone was nice and sent extras) she only was able to hatch one, tho all 4 developed. The ones in the bator now many of the air cells are wrecked so I can't give them to the broodys. Guess I''ll let them sit on the ceramic and try slipping chicks to them after they hatch.
Since the success of that seems mixed on here, I'll make sure they are in their own quiet place to brood and hopefully bond with new chicks when they hatch.

 

[MamaRoo]

I was too lazy to wait until tonight so I set the little girl behind her while I scratched her head. Clever little thing ran straight under her butt fluff and I don't think Mulberry even noticed her. I've gone out to check a couple times and she's still tucked under Mulberry's tail.

 

[Skeetergirl]

Great!

BTW, I have a silkie roo named Mulberry!

I was too lazy to wait until tonight so I set the little girl behind her while I scratched her head. Clever little thing ran straight under her butt fluff and I don't think Mulberry even noticed her. I've gone out to check a couple times and she's still tucked under Mulberry's tail.

 

[Tripp16]

I'm going to run out of ceramic eggs

I usually stick 2 of them under the girls while they decide what they want to do. The black cochin is still growling but in a different nest box, one with real eggs, I gave her the fake ones back and took the real ones. Then I found another black cochin in a corner of the hay barn on 2 eggs and she's being MEAN. I was in there yesterday morning so she's fresh at it, wasn't there early yesterday.
I'd order eggs in for them if I wasn't afraid the PO would wreck the air cells. The Cuckoo Maran was sitting on 4 shipped eggs that didn't fit in the bator (everyone was nice and sent extras) she only was able to hatch one, tho all 4 developed. The ones in the bator now many of the air cells are wrecked so I can't give them to the broodys. Guess I''ll let them sit on the ceramic and try slipping chicks to them after they hatch.
Since the success of that seems mixed on here, I'll make sure they are in their own quiet place to brood and hopefully bond with new chicks when they hatch.

I FEEL your pain! LOL Except I use golf balls. and none of my hens will sit on them longer then 5 hours!

This are standard hens BTW. If it were on my bantam side somebody would have already adopted them! Lol